


Breaking the Rules

by DarthTella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, First Kiss, Fluff, Introspection, Surprise Kissing, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-07 15:13:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18413213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthTella/pseuds/DarthTella
Summary: The Doctor decides it's time to throw away the rulebook as far as Rose Tyler is concerned.





	Breaking the Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ginger-tea-on-the-tardis over on Tumblr

Settling himself below the console, the Doctor got to work. He often found that tinkering around in the TARDIS’s circuitry was a good distraction from what was really on his mind. At least, that’s what he’d told himself anyway. He had personally dismantled and rebuilt the console so many times he could do it in his sleep. Actually, he was positive he did once, maybe twice. So it really didn’t take him long for him to start running on autopilot, leaving his brain to think about the things he was trying to distract himself from.

The rules, that was the thing bothering him. The rules and traditions of his people. He didn’t much care for them, and it was one of the reasons he left Gallifrey to begin with. More specifically, it was the rules about non-interference and fraternising with other species that really bothered him. The Doctor could still hear Borsua’s lectures in his mind that he only ever listened to with half an ear.

And now the Doctor was the last living Time Lord. It was up to him to maintain the traditions of his kind, even if it wasn’t to his liking. But that had a big problem attached to it, and that big problem even had a name: Rose Marion Tyler. 

From the moment he met her, Rose was the brightest star in his universe. Okay, that sounded really cheesy, but it was true! He was ready to just let himself die on that rooftop once he’d set that charge. There didn’t seem to be much point to going on living anymore, not after he’d killed the rest of his kind. But her the image of her face refused to leave his mind, her stubbornness and how she tried to work out the problem all kept playing over and over in his mind and made him reset the timer so he would have time to get out of there safely. Then he met her again, and again and he found himself so fascinated by her that he just had to invite her along.

She said no.

The Doctor thought on that for a while, and realised that if Rose never gave up, he wouldn’t either. So he asked again, and she hadn’t left his side since. As time went on, his resolve to keep to the rules his people laid out for him crumbled more and more. He even kissed the Time Vortex out of her when she came back to rescue him! An act that would have gotten him exiled from Gallifrey once more if it still existed! Of course that just had to trigger a regeneration, and his new appearance and personality just had to be one to compliment hers. This version of him was far more affectionate towards her, far more emotional.

Far more human.

That thought jolted him back into reality. His fingers slipped from the ancient circuit board he’d been sonicing and he burned his thumb slightly. Without a thought, he popped it into his mouth to ease the pain. A laugh from above him took him even more off guard. He withdrew the digit from between his lips and smacked his head against the grating in his attempt to stand.

“Aren’t you a little old to be sucking your thumb, Doctor?” Rose teased. He peered up at her, attempting a reproving look, but he already knew he was failing by the way Rose kept laughing. It was a beautiful sound. The Doctor snapped the panel he had been working on shut and extricated himself from underneath the grating. Rose offered her hand to help him up, and although he knew he could get himself out on his own, he still accepted her help. Any excuse to have her hand in his it seemed.

“Just burnt it with the sonic.” He admitted with a shrug. Rose frowned a little and gently brought his hand up to her face to examine his thumb. Or, that’s what he thought she was going to do. There was this funny human tradition he had forgotten about, and Rose was just following through with it. Holding his hand between hers, Rose took a small step forward and kissed the tip of his thumb.

His resolve to uphold the rules crumbled even further. All the air seemed to have been squeezed out of him as he felt pleasant tingle spread up from his thumb and up his arm and land directly in his hearts. Human traditions, while he didn’t understand a good portion of them, were far more appealing to him now. That was it, he was done regarding Rose as just his friend. That was just another lie he’d been telling himself so he wouldn’t go and shirk the responsibilities dumped on him by the Time Lords. She was far, far more than his friend in his mind, and it was about time that she knew that.

“Good riddance…” He must have said that part out loud as he saw Rose’s brow knit together in confusion as he gently tilted her head back. A surprised squeak escaped her throat, but the sound was muffled by the Doctor’s lips covering her own. She stood as still as a statue, and his mind wandered back to the time immediately after he had briefly been a statue and her reaction to when he had kissed her then. That was out of pure gratitude, he probably would have kissed whoever brought him back to life, but the fact that it had been Rose had made it even more special.

Rose still hadn’t moved, and his face flamed in mortification. What the hell was he thinking just kissing her out of the blue like this? Well, he knew what he was thinking, but this wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting. He should pull away, apologise and find an ice pack for his face after she slapped him. The TARDIS was probably entering the coordinates to her flat right now so she could go home. But that didn’t happen. Rose pulled him close as her lips finally started moving under his.

The details of the next few minutes were a bit fuzzy when he thought back on them later. His mind went blissfully blank at the first scratch of Rose’s nails against his scalp as she deepened the kiss into a mighty good snog. The next thing he knew he was holding her close with his cheek resting against the top of her head.

“What brought this on? Not that I’m complainin’.” He could hear the smile in her voice and he chuckled as he pressed a kiss to her hair.

“Just thought I’d break a few rules.” He replied breezily. Rose pulled back far enough to look him in the eye.

“What rules?” She didn’t look mad, exactly. Just adorably confused. The Doctor took that as a good sign. Still, he had to look away before answering.

“The rules that I once thought were important. The rules that kept me away from you.” He tightened his grip on her and unconsciously began to sway her in his arms. “Rubbish rules, honestly.”

“The worst.” She agreed, lifting herself on her tiptoes to kiss him again.


End file.
